The present invention relates to dollies and pallets and, in particular, it concerns dollies and pallets with an elastically suspended load-bearing surface useful in carrying and displaying merchandise.
A growing trend in the retail industries is the transferring of goods on dollies or pallets from a warehouse or receiving station to a retail outlet and displaying the goods while still loaded on the dollies or the pallets. This greatly reduces the labor involved in transferring the goods to a display units and arranging merchandise displays. As stated above, the present invention is particularly related to both dollies and pallets, typically constructed from metal, wood, molded plastic materials or combinations thereof.
When dollies are used for dispensing goods, the “top of the stack” moves downwards as the upper items are removed. This may make it more awkward for a customer to access the goods, requiring him or her to bend over and reach downwards to take the remaining goods. Additionally, there is a negative psychological effect according to which the goods left at the lower height is perceived by customers as “left over” or old, and hence is considered less desirable.
A solution presented the field of shipping containers, disclosed in PCT Patent Application Publication No. WO2007/113829, addresses this problem by suspending the floor from the existing walls. Such a solution is however non-applicable to pallets and dollies.
Therefore, for these and other reasons, it would be advantageous to provide a dolly or pallet equipped with a self-raising floor that would tend to raise the remaining part of a stack as goods are removed from the top of the stack.